World premiere shines a light on Canada, The Hip, and what home really means

It’s a rare opportunity to be part of the world premiere of a new musical, let alone one based on the music of an iconic Canadian band. The two leads of It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken are enjoying every minute of it.

Both have a strong connection to The Tragically Hip, whose music provides the soundtrack to a show about exiled Iraqi journalist Waleed, who finds a new home and a love story in Kingston in 2002. 

“I think this is the most beautiful experience that I've had in that respect,” says Ali Momen, who plays Waleed in the show, which opens April 22. He says the stars are aligning with a talented cast and creative team, a great story, incredible music, and the timing of this Canadian show. 

Talia Schlanger plays Kate, a Kingston native who manages her family’s record store and hasn’t stopped long enough to think about what really matters to her in life until Waleed arrives.

Schlanger, a theatre veteran, a singer-songwriter and a longtime radio host, says it’s a dream to take on iconic Hip songs under music director Bob Foster. 

“It's just cooler than I could have imagined. The poetry of their songs is so thick and layered and immense, and when you really dig in and you learn it in this way, or learn it in reimagined ways, it makes me both appreciate the original songs even more and then also be so excited to present them in this new way,” she says.

“Bob Foster is brilliant and he’s working with the beauty that's already there, and then taking it to these new places and new emotions because of these new arrangements, is just so thrilling to hear.”

Getting to sing Hip songs was initially Schlanger’s sole motivation for seeking the part. 

“I didn't know anything about what [the story] would be back when I came on board for a workshop that we did in the summer. I just know that I love this music so much, and I also just love the form of reinventing or art being in conversation with other art. So, I was just so excited to see what it would be. And if anybody was going to get to sing these songs, to be totally honest, I feel so protective of them and in love with them that I wanted to be part of the creative team that would sing them.”

Just like the music of The Hip, It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken is about connection, love, and saying something that needs to be said. That spirit, and the spirit of Gord Downie, are in the rehearsal room as this show comes to life, say its stars. 

But they also say that knowing or even liking the band’s music is not required to enjoy the musical, which is a piece of art all its own. 

“It's a show with the music of The Tragically Hip, and you start with the honouring and the homage and the love of this music, and then it morphs into honouring a story with this music,” says Momen. “And that's what makes, perhaps, a whole new swath of people honour and love the music even more. To start anew.”

Momen, whose theatre credits include Mirvish’s U.S. tour of Come From Away, had early input into this show. He was hanging out with Michael Rubinoff, producer of Come From Away, in 2023, when Rubinoff shared that he had acquired the rights to the Tragically Hip’s music for the purposes of developing a musical. 

“I said to him, ‘You know what's crazy? I was born in Iran, and I came here when I was three, and so growing up, The Tragically Hip were the thing that I would listen to to understand what Canada was,’” Momen says. 

Momen suggested to Rubinoff, co-producer of It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken, that the story should be centred on an immigrant. Rubinoff said that was the planned direction. And when Momen learned the book would be written by Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, he was even more intent on being part of the show. 

“Jesse I've known for a long time as a friend, but Ahmed is somebody who I've always wanted to work with. I've always thought he's a creative genius.”

Schlanger says the connection between Moneka and LaVercombe, who have previously collaborated on King Gilgamesh, is inspiring. 

“They're just such beautiful collaborators, and it's incredible to watch their creative process together and to witness a real, healthy and productive creative partnership that's so built in love. It’s not common, right? They both just punch love out of their eyes when they're talking about each other or about art.”

Director Mary Francis Moore creates an atmosphere where all input is encouraged and that’s something Momen and Schlanger don’t take for granted. 

“She’s the queen of this thing right now, and she's a very safe space to bring your ideas forward,” says Momen. “I love owning this role. In a lot of places it's not always welcome.”

Momen and Schlanger, who are each making their debut at Theatre Aquarius, grew up near each other in Thornhill, went to high schools adjacent to each other, and have mutual friends. But they had never met before workshops began for the show. They clearly delight in working together.

But the script and the music allows each of the cast’s 12 members to shine, says Schlanger.

“There is just so much heart in this group, in the creative team, but also in the cast. Just the nature of getting something this big off its feet so quickly really requires everybody to be on the same team. And the personal chemistry in casting, I just think they nailed that totally.”

Schlanger, has lengthy theatre credits, including the first U.S. tour of American Idiot, We Will Rock You, and Mamma Mia, left a job hosting a weekly music show at NPR in Philadelphia in 2019 to pursue a dream of writing music. She travelled through Europe to isolate herself and write what became her album, Grace for the Going, released in 2024.

A frequent freelance host with CBC, she will launch a new weekly interview show on SiriusXM in June called That Said with Talia Schlanger. 

Momen also has an interesting background. In addition to theatre work and film and TV roles, including Transplant and Workin’ Moms, he is the co-founder of a dating app called Bokay that got funding from Arlene Dickinson on Dragon’s Den. The app’s premise is to “slow the swipe.” Only as users read a profile, does a photo unblur. 

During the pandemic, he became an outspoken advocate for funding for arts infrastructure projects and even took a run at the Liberal nomination in the provincial riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s in 2021. He says the time may be right to try politics again one day. 

Schlanger attended the Hip’s final concert in Kingston and has struggled to find the words ever since to describe the experience. 

“I don't want to be too nationalistic about it, but it just felt like a massive, massive collective of energy beyond the room that we were in was there with us and with Gord,” she says. 

“Gord literally knew he was doing his last show with his band, and the courage that he had to face it and to be so present and to give such a long and phenomenal show under those circumstances, I'll just never get over that … It was heroic. That's what heroism looks like.”

Produced in partnership with Thousand Islands Playhouse, after the show closes on May 17 in Hamilton, the production will head east to Kingston. Staging the musical in the home of The Tragically Hip will be a special, and specific, experience, say the actors, but this show delivers something broadly universal. 

“We're talking about it as a Canadian story, but it's also a story about family and a story about love,” says Schlanger. “The universal themes that are so profoundly relatable in this show, I think, mean that it could be put up successfully absolutely anywhere. I don't want to spoil any of the plot, but I'll just promise you that it is something that anybody around the world would find personal and relevant and inspiring.”

Perhaps most importantly, at this moment, a time of conflict where what divides us seems so amplified and people are “very quick to judge and slow to forgive,” says Schlanger, “this show is the antithesis of that in a very honest and genuine way, and it doesn't shy away from how difficult a world we live in, but it really asks us to look at each other's humanity first, and to see that everybody you encounter is going through something probably deeper than you could imagine. To tell an immigrant story in this way, at this time, I really hope that it softens people's hearts.”

Momen says this show is a reminder of what happens to people who are caught up in war and that’s an important story to tell right now. 

“Art has this power to take you beyond numbers and take you beyond news events and wild Truth Social posts to actually see what's happening to the souls of people.”